Backblaze Cloud Storage Service Review

Backblaze is a strong contender for the title of best online backup service. This cloud backup solution focuses just as much on security as it does on integration. And, as it turns out, these two have far more in common than you might think. We’ll see what that means in our Backblaze review. We’ll also discuss Backblaze pricing and features, as well as a few Backblaze alternatives.

Backblaze – General Info

Backblaze is a cloud backup service that offers both personal and business backup, as well as B2 cloud storage. You can use it to create a secure cloud storage for all your important files. They focus quite a lot on security and transparency. And Backblaze pricing tiers are surprisingly affordable for the services they offer. However, Backblaze is perhaps better suited for small businesses or freelancers working from home. If you’re simply looking for online storage space, Backblaze might be a little bit excessive.

In the following section of this Backblaze review, we will be looking at Backblaze pricing. As you’ll see, their pricing plans are quite flexible, especially when it comes to their enterprise cloud plans.

You might also like: CrashPlan Vs Backblaze Cloud Storage Comparison

Backblaze Plans & Pricing

When it comes to pricing, there’s no doubt Backblaze is a top cloud-based backup service. Their pricing tiers are as straightforward as the software itself: both personal and business plans cost only 5 dollars per month or 50 dollars per year. For this sum, you get unlimited storage allotments and the option to restore all files lost in the last 30 days.

Here’s a short description for Backblaze’s price tiers:

Plan	Storage Allotment	Price	Additional features
Paid personal plan	Unlimited	$5/month Free trial	Receive a personal encryption key You can backup any device you own Locate lost computer function You can restore multiple versions up to 30 days Backup for Mac and PC laptops and desktops Mobile access
Business Computer Backup	Unlimited	$50/month per computer	Unlimited backup for multiple types of devices Remote access Security clearance levels
B2 Cloud Storage	Unlimited	5$/month per TB 10 GB Free	Integration with other cloud services Encryption Compression Serve backup NAS backup Unlimited amount of data

Backblaze In-Depth Review

In our Backblaze review, we took a look at some Backblaze’s main function, such as file backup and file restoration. In addition to these basic features, we also looked at some of the more advanced features Backblaze has to offer.

File Backup

After you install Backblaze, the program will start to upload your files automatically to the cloud. And by files, we mean all your files. You can set exclusion lists, so in the future, Backblaze skips certain file types. But you can’t do this the first time. So, it’s best if you reserve some time to install Backblaze, as first time setup can take a while. Subsequent uploads should take considerably less time.

You can schedule backups or let the program do it automatically. You can also set upload limits, just to ensure you don’t overload your CPU. In addition, you can also exclude certain file extensions from the backup procedure, to speed up the process.

File Restoration

There are three main ways in which you can restore files. Firstly, you can download them from the cloud back onto your computer. The files will come in either a .zip format. To restore your files, you will need to login to your Backblaze account online. Once you hit the “Restore” button in the Backblaze manager, all your files will be downloaded on the device you are using.

You can also recover lost files by ordering a USB flash drive. This Backblaze recovery will cost you $99. And you can only recover about 1 GB worth of data. You can send the flash drive back once you’ve got the files you need. You’ll receive a refund for the flash drive.

If you need to recover more than a 1 GB of files, you can order a USB hard drive instead. With this method, you can restore up to 3.5 TB of data. It costs up to $189, but, just like with the flash drive, you can send the hard drive back for a refund.

Security

Encryption and security are ensured by AES and SSL security protocols, which means that all your files are well guarded. Moreover, Backblaze also has a ‘find my PC’ feature, which allows users to find their computers in case of theft. Alternately, cannot retrieve the computer, you can wipe out anything you want by using Backblaze’s computer wipe feature.

Recently, Backblaze has also enabled a two-factor authentication feature. In this way, unauthorized users will find it even harder to access your backup storage. The only downside to using this security feature is that you will need two devices on hand, at all times, if you want to access the Backblaze storage.

Additionally, Backblaze uses native software instead of Java to further protect your data. It’s an incredibly useful feature since many data breaches occur because hackers tend to target Java weak points.

Other Features

From what we can tell from our Backblaze review so far, this cloud backup service was designed to be as simple as possible. This is partly due to the fact that Backblaze wants to encourage average home users to perform regular backups. On the other hand, a simple stripped down program is less likely to have security weaknesses.

As such, Backblaze doesn’t have a lot of advanced features. This cloud backup service supports file versioning, but only up to 30 days.

In addition, there’s also a handy Backblaze app, that allows you to manage files on your mobile devices as well.

Backblaze business cloud plans have more additional features. Business can customize their pricing plans according to their needs, and add or subtract features as they see fit. You can find out more about advanced cloud backup features for businesses at backblaze.com, in the Business solution section.

Backblaze Pros and Cons

To sum up what we’ve gathered so far in our Backblaze review, we made a list of pros and cons, to highlight Backblaze’s performance in specific areas. Below are things we liked about Backblaze in our review, as well as the things that could be improved.

Pros:

• Easy setup;
• Unlimited storage allotment;
• Good cross-platform performance;
• Fair pricing;
• Easy to use;
• Strong security protocols;
• Find My Computer and Wipe Hard Drive features are good additions;
• All restored files can be downloaded in a .zip format;
• Good performance overall – you won’t even know that the manager is operating;
• Exclude file extension feature.

Cons:

• Poor upload performance;
• No restore timeframe;
• No password management feature;
• It takes too long to install;
• No search bar for finding folders;
• You might lose files if you activate the scheduling option;
• No integration feature.

Backblaze Alternative Options

One of Backblaze’s major assets is that it’s relatively easy to use. If you’re looking for simplicity when it comes to file backup, a good alternative is Syncplicity. In our Syncplicity review, we noted that this backup service is also quite easy to use. However, unlike Backblaze, it manages to incorporate more features and options, while still maintaining a user-friendly experience. On the other hand, it is slightly more expensive than Backblaze.

Dropbox is also a fairly simple program if you’re only interested in the basic functions of a cloud backup service. Dropbox has the added advantage of making file sharing quite easy as well. However, it does have a slightly more complicated pricing system, and it’s more a cloud storage system than a backup system.

Touro is a great alternative to Backblaze. As we’ve mentioned in our Touro review, it is easier to use than Backblaze. However, it does not allow you to upload files larger than 5GB and it has no file syncing feature.

Our Verdict

To conclude our Backblaze review, we can safely say this cloud backup service is a fairly good choice both for home and business backup. The simple infrastructure it uses, coupled with the fact that Backblaze uses native software to operate makes it a highly secure cloud backup option. However, Backblaze may feel a bit bulky when it comes to home use, as all you can do is upload and download your files, with very few customization options. Still, if you are in the market for a solid cloud backup solution, Backblaze is definitely worth considering.

Is there anything you would like to add to this Backblaze review? What alternative cloud backup solutions have you used? Feel free to share your opinions in the comments!